Towards a World Wide Web of Simulation

Abstract

The process of developing and running simulations needs to become simple and accessible to audiences ranging from middle school students in a learning environment to subject matter experts in order to make the benefits of modeling and simulation commonly available. However, current simulations are for the most part developed and run on platforms that are: (1) demanding in terms of computational resources, (2) difficult for general audiences to use owing to unintuitive interfaces mired in mathematical syntax, (3) expensive to acquire and maintain and (4) hard to interoperate and compose. The result is a four-dimensional expense that makes simulation inaccessible to the general public. In this paper we show that by embracing the web and its standards, the use and development of simulations can become democratized and be part of a Web of Simulation where people of all skill levels are able to build, upload, retrieve, rate, and connect simulations. We show how the Web of Simulation can be built using the three basic principles of service orientation, platform independence, and interoperability. Finally, we present strategies for implementing the Web of Simulation and discuss challenges and possible approaches.